Obama's New Budget Would Fund Asteroid Lassoing

The budget for 2014 that President Obama will propose next Wednesday bears all the hallmarks of a man who no longer has to worry about winning an election. There's something in there to piss off everyone — except people who love science! Space science.

You see, while the budget calls for tax increases and benefit cuts that should reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years, it also gives $100 million to NASA for what SPACE.com describes as:

An audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes.

That's right — we're going to lasso an asteroid. And that's not all! According to Senator Bill Nelson (emphasis on the cool science stuff added): "The plan combines the science of mining an asteroid, along with developing ways to deflect one, along with providing a place to develop ways we can go to Mars."

Obama's budgets have see-sawed when it comes to NASA funding. Though he'd allocated funding to manned missions to Mars in previous budgets (and expressed a desire that NASA focus on Mars exploration), last year's budget cut NASA's funding to its lowest level in four years.

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.